Flossmoor police and fire officials were investigating the death Wednesday of an 11-year-old boy who was discovered huddled in a bathtub full of water after firefighters quenched a blaze in his home.
The boy, a 5th grader at Heather Hill School, was discovered covered with blankets in the bathtub about 11 a.m., after firefighters extinguished a fire that appeared to have been set in his parents’ second-floor bedroom.
Police said the boy left school early Wednesday, upset because he was not allowed to participate in a school activity. But school officials and law enforcement authorities said they were trying to piece together the circumstances leading to the boy’s death.
“It’s a real tragedy that a boy would get this upset. We have no idea what his ultimate intent was,” said Flossmoor Police Chief Michael Williams. “Anything in that direction would be speculation, and I won’t do that.”
A Heather Hill teacher called Flossmoor police at 10:53 a.m. Wednesday, reporting “a minor disciplinary incident with an 11-year-old” who had left the school, Williams said. “It was very minor. Something to do with him not being allowed to attend a lunchtime activity. That’s what started him off.”
School officials released a statement that said: “At approximately 10:20 a.m. the child left the classroom, apparently disturbed over a classroom incident. School officials conducted a search of the school’s grounds and the surrounding neighborhood leading to the child’s home.”
The boy’s parents have been out of town since Friday, Williams said, and were due back Wednesday. A 42-year-old aunt, a teacher who goes home every day about the same time as the children, has been staying with the boy and his two sisters, ages 16 and 14, and his 8-year-old brother.
“It appears the children were properly supervised,” Williams said.
Two teachers went to the child’s house–a large, two-story brick home in the 3100 block of Lawrence Crescent. They saw him through the window and tried to talk to him through the glass, Williams said.
“The doors were locked, and he refused to open the door or converse with them,” Williams said. The teachers called police, who banged on the door and rang the doorbell. The teachers then saw the boy go upstairs, Williams said.
“Then they heard the beep, beep, beep of a smoke alarm. A teacher saw smoke coming from out of the second-floor window from the parents’ bedroom,” Williams said.
Police kicked open the door, ran upstairs, but were driven back by billowing smoke and flames. Firefighters arrived, knocked the flames back, kicked open the locked bathroom door outside the master bedroom, and found the boy, Williams said.
“He was in the bathtub. The tub was filled with water, and he had apparently pulled blankets over himself. He was bent over, face down, as if he had been kneeling.”
Neighbors watched as the boy’s teacher stood at the driveway of the home when fire officials took the child out of the house, placed him on the lawn and tried to resuscitate him.
“The teacher was screaming hysterically because the boy was laying on the front lawn,” said one neighbor who asked not to be identified.
A representative from Columbia Olympia Fields Osteopathic Hospital and Medical Center said the 11-year-old was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital Wednesday afternoon.
Neighbors and friends described the boy as smart, short and thin with red hair and freckles. He was teased a lot by schoolmates, they said.
One neighbor, whose daughter is in the boy’s class, said the child sometimes seemed sad and angry. The woman, who asked not to be identified, said her daughter and school officials told her that on Wednesday morning, the boy got up and left his classroom without permission several times. First they found him roaming the halls, and then hiding in the bathroom, she said.
Another neighbor said the child came home crying, adding “It’s really too bad. The kids taunted him.”
Kortland Hudson, 10, who was in the boy’s class, said he was “a great kid. He’s real smart.”
The family has lived in the area for a couple of years, neighbors said.
Dean Collopy, superintendent of Flossmoor District 161, said, “We’re a very caring community and we work very closely with families and kids. This is a very difficult situation for all of us–the staff, the students and the whole community. We do have a crisis team in place to work with the students and family members as the need arises.”
Capt. Herb Rentschler of the Flossmoor Fire Department said officials responded to a fire at the home at 11 a.m. The fire was limited to the second-floor master bedroom, officials said.
The Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office found accelerants in the master bedroom, Williams said.
“There was a gasoline can found outside the home, near an open window in the master bedroom, as if it had been thrown,” Williams said.
Officials were investigating how the fire was set.
The boy “was found unresponsive, submerged in a bathtub,” said a representative from the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy was scheduled for Thursday.
The child’s death has deeply affected the school’s students and faculty.
“This is as bad as education gets,” Collopy said. “When you care about kids and work with them every day, you know, this really hits us hard.”
